EDINBURGH, September 2, 2011–The Scottish government launched today their promised consultation on
civil marriage equality for Scotland. At present, gay and lesbian
couples are banned from marriage in the UK, but are able to get legal
recognition through the Civil Partnership Act.

The initial view of the Scottish government is that civil marriage should be
open to both same sex couples and opposite sex couples, a view “grounded in
our commitment to equality, and our support for stable and committed
relationships. Same sex couples,
like opposite sex couples, can and do establish loving relationships which
they wish to formalise in a manner recognised by the state, and in some
cases by the religious body to which they belong.”

“We very much welcome this consultation and the Scottish Government’s
initial view in favour of introducing same-sex marriage,” said Tim Hopkins,
director of the Edinburgh-based Equality Network (EN).

“We agree that no religious body or religious celebrant should be required
to conduct same-sex marriages. Some
religious bodies want to conduct same sex marriages, and they should be
allowed to.

“The introduction of marriage equality in this term of the Scottish
Parliament would add to Scotland’s reputation as a modern, fair and
inclusive country.”

The
Scottish Youth Parliament has already declared its support: “Two people
who love each other should be able to get married; it’s as simple as that.”

A recent Scottish Social Attitudes survey found that more than 60% of people
in Scotland believe same-sex couples should have the right to marry,
compared with 19% who disagree.

No religious organisation in the UK can be compelled to register a marriage
against their beliefs: there is no plan in Scotland or anywhere else in the
UK to change the status quo which gives all religious organisations the
right to decide for themselves whether a couple may be married in that
faith, EN said this afternoon in a statement.

Religious organisations such as the Religious Society of Friends, the
Unitarian Church, and Liberal Judaism, have said they would like the ban on
celebrating marriage for same-sex couples lifted, as has the Humanist
Society of Scotland.

A key benefit is that if Scotland should move to lift the ban on same sex
marriage, then there would no longer be the inhumane requirement that a
transgender person should have to get a divorce before obtaining the full
gender recognition certificate. The
marriage could just continue.

Scottish government ministers and officials have said they intend to meet
key groups to discuss the proposals. Marriages
registered in accordance with Scottish law are recognised in the rest of the
UK: if the ban on same-sex marriage were lifted in Scotland ahead of
England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, a same-sex couple married in Scotland
a same-sex couple legally married in Scotland should be recognised as a
married couple throughout the UK.